frequency – Music Instincthttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct
An investigative look into the science of music.Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:22:58 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Physics of Sound: Cellist Michael Fitzpatrick on Vibrationshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/video/physics-of-sound/cellist-michael-fitzpatrick-on-vibrations/37/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/video/physics-of-sound/cellist-michael-fitzpatrick-on-vibrations/37/#disqus_threadWed, 20 May 2009 20:25:43 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=37The post Physics of Sound: Cellist Michael Fitzpatrick on Vibrations appeared first on Music Instinct.
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Michael Fitzpatrick: One of the research endeavors that I took was to look into the ideal sound wave rate, the idea of a vibrato wave, of oscillation, and there was a study that analyzed the great musicians of the past 20th century: Caruso, Heifetz, Casals, and they all have a vibrato wave or rate that was about 7 or 8 cycles per second.

So you have this—ning, ning, ning, ning—ning, ning, ning, ning– ning, ning, ning, ning—and the physicist will attest to that we are entrained to the vibration that is dominant in our environment sonically.

So I was then curious to know if somehow this was a deeper universal rhythm that they were tuning into. If you can tap into that universal pulse, if you can get that to come out of the instrument that other people would experience that directly.

You hit that pulse right on, then—whatever word you want to use—you can experience peace of mind, enlightenment, or just deep listening

We’ve developed core tools around the concepts of chords, frequency, and rhythm in partnership with Indaba Music. These tools incorporated in the lesson plans can also be appreciated on their own! Feel free to check out these fun interactives below.

Learn about basic chord stucture:

Learn about frequency and how it manifests in sounds the sounds around us:

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plans-overview/15/feed/111Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Culminating Activityhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/culminating-activity/126/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/culminating-activity/126/#disqus_threadSat, 11 Apr 2009 21:30:23 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=126The post Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Culminating Activity appeared first on Music Instinct.
]]>1) Explain to students that most sounds in the world are complex, containing different tones and overtones which can span a range of frequencies. Ask students if they can think of a way in which they may have encountered sound broken down into its different constituent frequencies. (Accept all answers, but explain that the “bass” and “treble” adjusters on computers and audio equipment basically do just this by emphasizing higher and lower frequencies.) Explain that graphic equalizers on more sophisticated stereo systems go a step further by breaking down any given piece of music into varying numbers of frequency “bands.”

2) Load the “Frequency Explorer” widget from the MUSIC INSTINCT Web site. Play each sound in turn with the widget on the default (“reset”) settings, and then adjust the settings to emphasize higher, treble frequencies (on the right) and lower, bass frequencies (on the left). Ask students to describe how the quality of each sound is affected by adjusting the settings in different ways. For instance, does a cheering crowd sound nearer or further away without treble? (Further.) What might be deduced from this? (Higher frequencies don’t travel as far.) Can the sounds of an indoor shower be made to sound like rain outside? Can it be made to sound like an egg frying? (Accept all answers.)

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/culminating-activity/126/feed/0Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Learning Activitieshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/learning-activities/125/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/learning-activities/125/#disqus_threadSat, 11 Apr 2009 21:30:20 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=125The post Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Learning Activities appeared first on Music Instinct.
]]>1) Tell students that they have been examining how our experience of sound starts as the physical vibrations of energy pulsing through a medium. Ask students if they can think of times that they have actually felt sound vibrations with their bodies. (Answers may include the rumbling of distant thunder or the thump of loud music coming through the floors, ceilings, or walls of their homes.) Provide a FOCUS question for the next video clip by asking students how deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie “hears” music. PLAY Clip 2: “An Ocean of Vibration.”

2) Review the focus question: how does Evelyn Glennie experience music? (She feels it through the sounds vibrations in her body.) Explain that the human body itself is a medium through which sound travels as described in the introductory activity. Log on to the “Introduction To What Sound Is” website (www.fearofphysics.com/Sound/dist.html). Have the students click “Play” for the animation and explain that the first page of this website depicts, like the Slinky demonstration, a sound wave in a single, straight-line pulse. Have students click on the blue link at the bottom of the yellow box (“The wave is able to spread out more…”) and explain this second page of the website (“Sounds: Allow the Wave to Expand”) illustrates a sound wave in two dimensions. Ask students to review what the red dots in each illustration represent. (The molecules of the medium.) Minimize the browser window with this website, as you’ll be returning to it later in the lesson.

3) Divide the class into groups of 3-5, and explain that each group will be conducting a series of experiments to determine how sound travels though different mediums. Distribute a wire hanger, a metal spoon, some yarn, some string, some metal wire, a ruler and the “Sound Mediums” Student Organizer (PDF) (RTF) to each group. Each member of the group should hold the wire hanger and tap it with the ruler. The group should collectively agree on how to describe the sound, and enter this description on the student organizer.

4) Next, tie a four foot length of string onto the hook of the hanger. Have each group member in turn wrap a few inches of each string around a finger on each hand. Gently plug the string-wrapped fingers into each ear. Have another person tap the hanger with the ruler. How is the sound different than before? Enter a collective description on the student organizer.

5) Replace the string with a four foot length of yarn. How do the sounds compare to those when string was used? Replace the yarn with a four foot length wire. How does that compare? Replace the four foot wire with a six foot wire. Does length affect loudness? Why? Have the group note all their collective responses on their student organizer.

6) Have each group take turns reporting their findings as recorded on their student organizers. Explain that the speed at which sound travels depends on the medium in which it is traveling and the molecular packing of that material. Molecules are packed most densely in solids and least densely in gases. The closer the molecules are together, the better sound travels. In this activity, when the string and fingers were plugged into the ears, the sound traveled better than just through the string and air. Solid wire is a denser, better conductor of sound than tightly woven string, which is in turn a better conductor of sound than loosely woven yarn.

7) Tell students that so far they’ve been learning about how sound moves from an initial source vibration through a medium. But what happens when a sound wave actually reaches our ear? What enables us to hear sound, and distinguish between different sounds? (Accept all answers.) Provide a FOCUS question for the next video clip by asking students what the cochlea is and how it works. PLAY Clip 3, “How We Hear”

8) Review the focus question: what is the cochlea and how does it work? (The cochlea is a snail-like part of the ear filled with tiny hair cells which are tuned to vibrate at different frequencies. The cochlea converts these physical vibrations into electromagnetic signals to the brain’s auditory cortex.) Explain that the pitch we hear is directly related to the speed, or frequency, of the sound wave.

10) Explain that the range of sound frequencies generally audible to humans varies among individuals, and particularly with age. Allow students to discover the limits of their own hearing by directing them to the “Hearing Test” available at http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/. Invite one student to sit at the computer hidden from view. Tell the student that he or she should activate the tones at irregular intervals, beginning with the lowest frequencies and moving progressively higher. Ask everyone else in the room to stand up, close their eyes, and only sit down when they are sure they can no longer hear the activated pitch. You play too!

11) Explain that frequencies higher than humans can hear are referred to as ultrasonic, while those too low for humans to hear are called infrasonic. Provide a FOCUS question for the next video clip by asking students what infrasonic pitch the black hole described in the clip makes. PLAY Clip 4: “Cosmic Music.”

12) Review the focus question: What pitch does the black hole described in the clip make? (B flat—but 57 octaves too low for us to hear.) The video clip referred to sound as a “unifying thread” connecting everything in the universe. Explain that the final clip will approach that same theme from a different angle. Provide a FOCUS question by asking students what similarities may be found between the sounds made by whales and those made by catbirds. PLAY Clip 5: “Whale Song.”

13) Review the focus question: what similarities may be found between the sounds made by whales and those made by catbirds? (The whale song, when sped up, has a similar pattern and form to the birdsong). Ask students why they think this might be? (Accept all answers, but suggest that the longer, slower, lower whale song may reflect whales’ larger size and slower metabolisms compared with the higher speed, more tightly wound metabolisms of small birds, and that the lower, slower whale song may be better suited to travel through the denser medium of water.)

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/learning-activities/125/feed/6Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Introductory Activityhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/introductory-activity/124/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/introductory-activity/124/#disqus_threadSat, 11 Apr 2009 19:27:02 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=124The post Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Introductory Activity appeared first on Music Instinct.
]]>1) Ask two volunteers to stretch a Slinky out on the floor or a table to about three to four yards length, with one volunteer firmly holding each end. Have one volunteer give their end of the Slinky a quick push toward the other end, returning the slinky to its original position immediately afterwards. What happens? Do the two ends of the Slinky move towards each other? (No.) What is moving from one end of the Slinky to the other? (A pulse or wave of energy.)

2) Tell students that what they are doing with the Slinky is modeling the way energy in the form of a sound wave travels through solids, liquids or gases. Explain that those substances, known as mediums, are composed of molecules, more or less regularly spaced from each other, like the coils of the Slinky. When one of these molecules begins to vibrate as the result of a sound source’s energy, it pushes against the molecules next to it (a process called compression) before returning to its original position (a process called rarefaction); the process is repeated with the adjacent molecules and so on as the sound wave passes through the molecular structure of the medium.

3) Tell the class they will now be looking at the first of several clips about sound from the PBS program THE MUSIC INSTINCT. Provide a FOCUS for media interaction by asking students how the physical nature of a musical note on a cello differs from that of a handclap. PLAY Clip 1: “The Nature of Vibration.”

4) Review the focus question: how does the physical nature of a musical note on a cello differ from that of a handclap? (A sustained musical note repeats in a regular, cyclical pattern of pressure waves. A handclap is more sudden and chaotic.) Ask students how a cello note and a handclap could be simulated with the Slinky, and have the volunteers perform the simulations as suggested. (A cello note could be simulated by pulsating one end of the Slinky back and forth in a rhythm; a handclap can be simulated by a single powerful push or spasm.)

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/introductory-activity/124/feed/1Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Prep for Teachershttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/prep-for-teachers/123/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/prep-for-teachers/123/#disqus_threadSat, 11 Apr 2009 19:07:34 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=123The post Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Prep for Teachers appeared first on Music Instinct.
]]>Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Preview all of the video segments and Web sites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social bookmarking tool such as del.icio.us or diigo (or an online bookmarking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/frequency-explorer/120/feed/0Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Media Resourceshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/media-resources/119/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/education/lesson-plan-3-good-vibrations/media-resources/119/#disqus_threadSat, 11 Apr 2009 17:07:52 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/?p=119The post Lesson Plan 3: Good Vibrations!: Media Resources appeared first on Music Instinct.
]]>1) “The Nature of Vibration”
An explanation of the different types of sound waves created by smooth and abrupt noises:

2) “An Ocean of Vibration”
A description of how deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie is able to experience sound as vibrations in her body:

3) “How We Hear”
A description of the how humans hear, from the ear drum to cochlea to brain:

4) “Cosmic Music”
An exploration of the tones found in the larger universe:

5) “Whalesong” An exploration of the tones found in the larger universe.
An analysis of whale song comparing its structure to that of birds, and perhaps to universal patterns and forms: